PROGRAMS

To me Rita Coolidge is a sound, that marvelous, kind of smoky, husky but pure sound and yes she has the hits…

— David Finkle, Village Voice

…And what made this evening special was the seamless way in which Coolidge moved from one style to another, from one song to another, while maintaining the stylistic integrity of each. The ″Delta Lady″ described by Leon Russell in the song he wrote for her, has been transformed into an interpretive musical artist of the first rank…

— Don Heckman

Capacity audience adored her… the band was excellent… ‘Amazing Grace’ sung in Cherokee was a knock-out.

Rita Coolidge Greatest Hits

MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES OF LEGENDARY HITS

Rita Coolidge’s credentials are the stuff of legend, in fact Rita Coolidge IS a legend. She began her recording career as a backing vocalist in Memphis in the 1960’s. Shortly thereafter she relocated to Los Angeles and was a backup singer for the likes of Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, The Temptations and more. In the summer of 1969, Rita was tapped to Join Joe Cocker and Leon Russell’s Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour where Joe Cocker dubbed her the ‘Delta Lady’ and Leon Russell wrote the iconic song of the same name in her honor. Rita, along with the Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, wrote the hit song ″Superstar″, a song that would later become synonymous with Eric Clapton and a huge hit for Rita and The Carpenters.

In 1971, A&M Records moguls Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss signed her to the label, and one of the most enduring solo careers in all of music was underway. Rita released more than a dozen albums in the years to follow, including 1978's multi-platinum ″Anytime…Anywhere″. Several of her singles would become classics; ″We're All Alone″, ″Higher And Higher, The Way You Do The Things You Do″ and ″All Time High″ the James Bond theme for the film Octopussy, all qualify as ″career″ songs.

This past decade has been quite momentous for the two time Grammy Award®winning performerRita Coolidge. She recorded a critically and commercially acclaimed jazz album for Concord Records entitled ″And So Is Love″, a live HD DVD and PBS Special, in conjunction with WHYY and HDNet TV, entitled ″On Stage At World Café Live″, saw Universal Records release a 41 song retrospective of her four decade long career entitled: ″Delta Lady: The Rita Coolidge Anthology″ and released her first ever Christmas CD ″A Rita Coolidge Christmas″ on 429/Savoy Records.

Delta Lady Blues

A JOURNEY THROUGH SONGS OF HER ROOTS

Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee two Grammy® Award winning singer, Rita Coolidge was bestowed the name Delta Lady by Joe Cocker on the seminal Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour in the early 1970’s. Rita Coolidge ″Delta Lady Blues″ harkens back to her Memphis roots where the legendary singer began her career as a backing vocalist. ″Delta Lady Blues″ showcases Rita at her very best and takes the listener on a journey through songs of her roots and the foundation of music that helped to shape and inspire generations of musicians and fans alike. Set features songs like ″Shoo Rah, Brickyard Blues (Play Something Sweet), Basic Lady, Born Under a Bad Sign, I Can’t Stand The Rain, Mud Island, Late Again, That’s How Strong My Love Is″ and ″Delta Lady″.

Rita Coolidge Symphony

AN EVENING WITH RITA COOLIDGE

Her name is Rita Coolidge. She’s won two Grammy® Awards. Her song styling crosses three different musical genres: rock, pop and jazz. Her bloodlines cross two different ethnicities. Diversity is her middle name. Making great music with a giant, inbred talent is her game.

″We have a relationship with music,″ Coolidge states, ″and it represents our relationship with ourselves and with other people. The importance of family is intertwined with our spiritual path. In my nation, the Cherokee nation, women are revered as they age. I am in the middle of the process, and I’m trying to embrace it with grace and dignity. I am making a conscious effort to give back everything I’ve learned.″

In ″An Evening with Rita Coolidge″, Rita will shower concertgoers with great standards and chart-toppers from all three musical genres. Her discography includes ″Amazing Grace, Black Coffee, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Fever, Hallelujah I Love Him So, Higher And Higher, I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love, I Don’t Know Enough About You, I’ll Remember You, Mean To Me, One Fine Day, Seven Bridges Road, Still Learning About Love, Superstar, The Way I Loved You″, and ″We’re All Alone″.

A Rita Coolidge Christmas

PERFORMING HER FAVORITE HOLIDAY CLASSICS & timeless songs of the season

In many spiritual and emotional ways that reflect the deep and ever-present importance of family, ″A Rita Coolidge Christmas″—the two time Grammy Award winning singer’s highly anticipated CD—is a musical holiday celebration she’s been working on all her life.

Coolidge loves to remember the sweet holiday story she was frequently told about her early childhood in rural Tennessee. As the singer’s mother frequently recalled, ″White Christmas″ played throughout their household, and, even before she could walk, they’d put young Rita in a rocking chair and she would hum Irving Berlin’s timeless melody—making that the first song the celebrated vocalist ever sang. Over the past ten years, Coolidge has come full circle with the timeless sounds of the season, performing her favorite holiday classics on a popular Christmas tour which plays annually in different regions across the U.S. throughout December.

The unique part of Rita's Christmas show is that she performs with a local high school, church or community choir. She has performed with choirs as small as 15 people and as large as 65 people. The choir opens the show as the opening act and then closes the show performing 3 songs with Rita and the band; ″Silent Night″, a traditional Christmas song, ″Circle of Light″, one of Rita's originals and ″Amazing Grace″, Rita's arrangement sung in Cherokee, which is a true crowd pleaser. The process is quite simple and we provide all charts and music months in advance to the choir directors.

An artist with Coolidge’s storied legacy doesn’t need a special time of year to celebrate, but there is so much musical joy for her fans of multiple generations to look back on and be thankful for as they listen to A Rita Coolidge Christmas. In recent years, she has been honored with a Lifetime of Musical Achievement award at the First Americans in the Arts Awards, as well as being the recipient of a Native American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. It’s the music, the stories and the dynamic collaborations that will be remembered most like being a featured soloist Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour with Joe Cocker and Leon Russell and her work with other rock royalty followed, including tours and recordings with Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Jimmy Buffett and Stephen Stills.

Rita Coolidge Native Sounds

AN INSPIRATIONAL MUSICAL JOURNEY OF THE SPIRIT

Rita Coolidge, an eternal star in the galaxy of Rock and Roll, has proven herself and enduring talent blessed with radiant Native American beauty and what has been described as ″the sexiest voice in the world.″ Rita, a two time Grammy winner, launched her singing career in 1969 with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and went on to share the stage with such greats as Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell and her former husband Kris Kristofferson, just to name a few. Her recording career has spawned several dozen albums worldwide including her multi-platinum disc ″Anytime...Anywhere″, which featured three of her biggest hit singles — ″Higher & Higher″″The Way You Do The Things You Do,″ and ″We're All Alone″. Her most heartfelt commitment remains to the Native American community. The commitment to her Cherokee heritage carries through her life, ″If we have the vision and the dream, anything can come true.″ Rita, her sister Pricilla and her niece Laura created the native group Walela (Walela means hummingbird in Cherokee) in order to honor their Native American Roots. Walela released 2 albums and a live DVD before disbanding. But Rita keeps that legacy alive by performing many of the songs from those albums with her current band and adds a percussion component to the live presentation. Songs in the Native Sounds set include ″I Have No Indian Name, Circle of Light, Cherokee, Muddy Road, Wash Your Spirit Clean″ and ″Amazing Grace ″which was the song most sung by the Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears march in the late 1800’s. When sung in Cherokee, it is the Cherokee National Anthem.